In our interview with Maik Wehner (pictured right), Managing Director of Lagerwerk, we shed light on the company's core mission in the field of sustainable industrial components. Wehner describes how Lagerwerk is helping to conserve resources and highlights the importance of Saxony as a strategic business location. He provides insights into Lagerwerk's unique approach to bearing and drive technology and discusses how the company is shaping the industrial sector through innovative processes and customized solutions.
How does Lagerwerk describe its corporate mission in terms of industrial components and sustainability?
As a leading company with partner status, our mission is to make used industrial components, machines and systems from various industrial sectors accessible to the secondary market worldwide in order to return them to the economic cycle. We want to extend the product life cycle of as many existing and functional components and machines as possible beyond their actual half-life.
What role does Saxony as a business location play in the development and success of Lagerwerk?
The business location of Saxony is of great importance to us, as Saxony has a very diversified industrial structure and, not least thanks to Silicon Saxony and the universities, the innovative strength is also very high. This industry diversity opens up a very wide range of potential customers, partners and/or suppliers for us. We already maintain a large local network in Saxony and are constantly expanding it. This in particular enables us to demonstrate on a daily basis that high-tech industry and sustainability form a perfect symbiosis. We grow with and through Saxony as a business location.
How does Lagerwerk contribute to the circular economy and resource conservation in industry?
We recycle high-tech industrial goods in the most sustainable way possible: we source all of our items from liquidated or surplus stock or recover them from insolvencies, production conversions, plant dismantling or industrial auctions. The main aim is to return all still usable and functional components of these industrial goods to the secondary market, either as a complete machine or as a specific spare part. In this way, we extend the respective product life cycle and conserve resources.
How does Lagerwerk differentiate itself from the competition in its range of bearing and drive technology?
We are a reliable partner for new and used components and systems from a wide range of industries and are not specific to one sector, but rather cross-sectoral. Unlike most of our competitors, we focus primarily on sustainability by only offering reclaimed items. Furthermore, we guarantee exceptionally fast availability of our items through actual stock levels - we can have almost all of our items ready for collection or dispatch within 30 minutes. In addition, if your order is received and paid for by 14:00, we will ship it the same day, with no extra express surcharge. Our items come with a 60-day functional guarantee. In addition to various express parcel shipping options, we also offer express pallet goods shipping within Germany.
Can you briefly explain the processes behind the procurement and quality inspection of your products?
Procurement and quality testing of our items require thorough identification of requirements and suppliers, inspection, evaluation and functional testing. We are always in close personal contact with our suppliers and evaluate every purchase after a personal inspection and test. To ensure the highest possible quality of all our components, we also request all available documentation, such as maintenance histories, operating instructions or service reports from the previous owner. Once the components have arrived at our premises, they are properly and professionally dismantled, reconditioned and then stored. Before goods are dispatched, we check the functionality of all items again.
What challenges does Lagerwerk face in the area of warehouse logistics and how are these overcome?
We also face a wide range of challenges in the area of warehouse logistics, such as optimizing stock levels, picking efficiency, workforce management and returns management. We overcome these challenges with a combination of technological investments (we have ERP software and warehousing software developed specifically for us), flexible workforce management with regular employee training and sophisticated strategic planning for continuous process optimization.
How does digitalization affect your business model and relationships with your customers?
Our business model in terms of sales and internal processes has been largely digitalized since the beginning and is constantly being updated and optimized. Digitalization helps us to optimize and automate internal and external processes. This allows us to accelerate all necessary processes and strengthen customer loyalty. For example, our customers benefit from extremely short response and delivery times or the rapid worldwide availability of all items. Personal contact, especially in purchasing in general and in the sale of machines or production lines, is nevertheless an indispensable part of our daily activities. Every single project has special requirements / conditions or prerequisites and requires sensitively knitted individual solutions, which we can then offer and implement with the help of our technical capabilities.
What trends do you currently see in bearing and drive technology and how is Lagerwerk adapting to them?
There are various trends in warehouse and drive technology. In warehouse logistics, we see increasing automation and robotics as core processes, taking into account the concept of sustainability. Automated picking systems, for example, ensure significantly greater efficiency for us. We use software developed especially for us for our special requirements and goods specifics for space optimization and efficient picking.
In our opinion, there are currently four important trends in the field of drive technology: mobile and battery-powered applications, modular design for easier customization, increased efficiency and a move away from the use of permanent magnets in motors. We are responding to changes in customer requirements with specially tailored and adapted purchases. Our drive technology segment is always purchased as up-to-date as possible.
How does Lagerwerk contribute to energy efficiency and environmental protection?
We try to use all our resources as efficiently as possible, including energy. We therefore use automation systems to control heat and light in our office and warehouse areas, our employees are regularly trained in the conscious use of energy and unused devices are not left on standby but are always switched off completely.
Environmental protection is a guiding principle of our business principle, starting with office management that is as paper-free as possible, environmentally friendly packaging that is as plastic-free as possible when shipping our products, the reuse of packaging materials and organic drinks in glass bottles, all processes are optimized for environmental compatibility.
What significance do customer-specific solutions and services have for your company?
We see ourselves as a full-service provider for our customers. Customer satisfaction plays a central role for us. That's why we always work with each customer to find at least one individual, efficient and environmentally friendly solution for their specific requirements profile.
How does Lagerwerk ensure the long-term satisfaction and loyalty of its customers?
We understand the individual needs of our customers and adapt our services accordingly. Our high quality products and functional guarantee prove our professionalism and reliability. We like to meet our customers in person to build and strengthen a personal bond. We communicate transparently and openly at all times and are also extremely reliable when it comes to verbal agreements. Should we nevertheless make a mistake, we take full responsibility and find a customer-oriented solution to compensate for it.
What new technologies or innovations is Lagerwerk planning to include in its range?
There are various technologies and innovations in our range that we want to incorporate in order to increase our efficiency, sustainability and added value for our customers. Here are a few examples: We will continue to automate our valuation processes: We are implementing automated systems, including those equipped with AI processes, which will speed up and standardize our assessment process of industrial plants and machinery. We are in the process of deploying advanced data analytics systems to identify market trends faster and to facilitate decision-making for buying and selling.
With the expansion of our 360° virtual tours, we will provide our customers with more digital tours of machines or production facilities in the future to enable our buyers to take virtual tours of industrial facilities without being present in person. We will implement AI algorithms for dynamic pricing based on market conditions, supply and demand. We are also constantly expanding our product range, with a focus on high-tech industrial components and equipment from the semiconductor, high-vacuum and automation technology sectors.
What are Lagerwerk's plans for the future, particularly in terms of expansion, research and development?
The sustainable utilization of production lines and facilities will become an increasingly important topic in the coming years. Our company is pursuing ambitious expansion and development plans to strengthen our competitiveness and increase customer satisfaction. As part of our expansion efforts, the focus is on a broader product range by identifying new industries and markets. At the same time, we are aiming for geographical expansion by opening up new regions and countries for market entry and establishing strategic partnerships in key markets. Increasing our warehouse capacity and investing in modern logistics technology are further priorities in order to be able to handle a larger product range efficiently.
In terms of development plans, we are focusing on optimizing processes by expanding our specialist software and integrating automation and robotics to increase our efficiency. We also want to implement advanced technologies to improve quality assurance.
The implementation of these plans requires substantial investments in modern technologies and IT infrastructure as well as the expansion of warehouse space. The training and further education of our employees is crucial for us to be able to use these new technologies and processes efficiently. There is a particular focus on training in the areas of sustainability and quality management. By regularly evaluating our expansion and development plans, we ensure that we can react flexibly to changes and achieve the goals we have set ourselves.
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➡️ Contact: Thomas Wolf, thomas.wolf@diesachsen.com
